There’s something you need to know about the Getty family. We’re stubborn. Not just regular “I don’t want to eat split pea soup even if there’s bacon in it” stubborn either. We’re pigheaded, we’re determined, we’re sometimes wrong — even though it makes no sense to really admit it. Without thinking one November Saturday while sitting on the couch with my wife I uttered what may very well be famous last words, “I think for my New Years Resolution I want to visit all of the Wilderness Areas in Colorado”. I had done no research, knew nothing of the lay of the land other than that there were several federally designated Wilderness areas managed by the US Forest Service in the state and that I enjoyed visiting Indian Peaks and Lost Creek Wilderness areas during my travels this season, the first year we’d lived in the state.

How many wilderness areas could there possibly be? Well. A lot actually. Discounting the fact that Colorado gets a ton of snow, it’ll be difficult to hit all of the fourty federally designated Wilderness areas in Colorado in a year. My goal is not just to touch-and-go like many people who count states that they’ve simply been in.

As I write this, it’s still 2018, in fact not far removed from when I made my original statement to my wife. But it’s out there, hanging in the air above Denver, and while I might not make it to all of the Wilderness Areas, I may as well take a run at it.

So the goal is this: In 2019 I’d like to hike, hunt, camp, or fish in each of Colorado’s 40 federally designated Wilderness Areas. I’ll track them on the blog here, and use each visit as a bit of a wildlife scouting trip. If I’m lucky I’ll have better camera gear than just a phone. Some trips I will hopefully bring a ringer and bring one of my photographer friends. The trips will give me an excuse to travel the state but also to test out new gear that I otherwise wouldn’t have, augmenting my hunting kit and turning me into more of a long range backpack hunter with the bonus side effect of being way healthier from all this hiking.

Alex is a hardcore public lands hunter and fisherman. When he's not spending time scouring maps for somewhere he's never been, and no one else is likely to go, he's at home cooking up delicious wild fish and game meals for family and friends.